Request From BeyondPod Team: Requirements for Flattr support

[tim]

Greetings-

We're considering adding Flattr support to BeyondPod. Flattr is a micro-donation system used to support bloggers and other creators (in this case podcasters).

We're currently in the 'requirements gathering' stage and are hoping to get input from those users more acquainted with Flattr. As you might guess development will be iterative so its best to nail down the basics first.

Here are two obvious ones to get started-

- Ability to Flattr feeds

- Ability to Flattr individual podcasts

Any others?

You are also welcome to comment on how you envision implementation.

[marcnesium]

Hey BeyondPod team!

Great to hear about your plans to integrate flattr!

The two points you mentioned are of course right.

Here are my 2cents: try to make it as easy as possible (and also automatable) to flattr a podcast! IMHO this is essential to make it work, more essential than for other functions.

What I have in mind:
- a: flattr all my feeds automatically
- b: flattr all episodes i've downloaded automatically
- c: flattr all eposides i've listened completly automatically
- d: let my choose what to flattr manually.

I would personally use last option d. For that it would be cool to have something like an flattr button in player view, perhaps next to the playback speed button or sleep timer button. This button could be gray if not flattred automatically or not yet flattred manually yet. Secondary such a button could be placed into the episode details view.

For option b and c a flattr button in the episode list view next to the force reload button could be handy. In a little popup the user could choose between b and c. Also gray button could indicate status like before.

Option a could be set globally in preferences.

As I understand from several podcasts from Germany (here flattr is really popular, compared to most other countries I think) flattr could change/expand their API, since the iOS podcatcher Instacast was rejected by Apple because of flattr integration. I think the android ecosystem has no problem with flattr so far, but perhaps it could be beneficial to get in touch with the guys from Instacast, because they are working on the same problem, but for different OS.

Also Germany's so to say No. one podcaster Tim Pridlove is very active regarding podcasts and flattr (some people say flattr was invented for him, with tongue-in-cheek ) and worth a chat.


Thanks for working on this! As I mentioned before this is really something to make the world just a bit a better place - not just "Like", but award somebody's effort with a little tip. Great idea!


I would like to read what you think! Thanks, keep on coding! Bye, Marc.

(P.S.: sorry for bad english)

[amenthes]

Once there's flattr-integration, i can imagine different "stages" of integration.

The most basic one seems to be "have a manual flattr button on the player screen that takes me to a website/the flattr-app".
This would require a ui change and reading the specialized Feed-Field which many podcasts use.

More comfortable would be an option to automatically flattr things (which is not a problem, as the amount of money you give away is fixed, it's just distributed differently). To add on to the interesting options described by marcnesium i'd add a certain threshold after which the auto-flattr occurs. This is borrowed from last.fm's scrobbling, which also only occurs when you listen to (at least) a certain portion of a song.
This would additionally require a change of the options menu (possibly an options page of its own).

I could also imagine the auto-flattr-setting to be a category- or feed-level setting. (Maybe i want to always flattr my Cooking Podcast, but not ever the Tech-News-Podcast). Since all these add a load of complexity to every menu, these might better be hidden, when a user hasn't actually opted-in to flattr in the first place.

For People that opt-int to auto-scrobbling, i'd offer an option to show or hide a manual "flattr button" - since "read/listened" also basically means "flattrd", the extra button would be of little use. From the ui perspective, auto-flattr is easier to implement than manual flattr (you only need to add some options in the settings menu, and you're pretty much there).

What i personally don't really need inside of BP is a list of flattrd things or a top-list of stuff from flattr. Also BP wouldn't need to flattr anything else but podcasts. These things can be obtained from websites and other apps just as easily. Auto-Flattr, however, cannot.

[marcnesium]

Dear BP-Team!
Could you please give a short update about the progress of flattr integration? What are your implementation plans? Share a bit with your users - the only thing what could happen is to get some feedback ; )
Keep on rocking! Bye, Marc.

[Florian3]

Hi BeyondPod team!

As I promised on Twitter, I want to give feedback :-)

Usually I flattr every podcast episode during or after listening it by manually going to the website and clicking the button. Thats a real usability breakdown :-(

So I would use the feature to "auto-flattr" a episode after a small threshold of listening. May be 20 % e.g.

Bye, Florian3

[juwlz]

Could you please give a short update about the progress of flattr integration? What are your implementation plans? Share a bit with your users - the only thing what could happen is to get some feedback ; )

At the moment, given the very small amount of feedback that's been given to us in this thread about how people would want to use it (or indeed whether it would get used at all), other features are higher up the priority list. If we get an increase in interest, we'll re-evaluate.

Julie

[smo]

Hi,

I'd like to have Flattr integration, too. Would be really nice to have this integrated in beyondpod!

Greets,
smo

[lsf3og]

I'd really appreciate flattr support, too.

[herrthees]

For a podcatcher Flattr-integration is a MUST. BeyondPod is a very nice and interesting app, but without Flattr-support it can not make me leave Podkicker.

[KamiKa]

I usually want to flattr every episode I start to listen.